Conflicts of Interest

The journal’s policy on conflict of interest or competing interest is based on the guidelines of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE).

A conflict of interest, also known as a competing interest, may arise when the authors, their employers, or sponsors have financial, commercial, legal, or professional relationships with other organizations, or with individuals working with them, that could influence the objectivity of the research.

When submitting a manuscript to this journal, full disclosure is required. This information will initially be used by the Editor-in-Chief to make an editorial decision regarding the manuscript. Once the manuscript is accepted, the disclosure will be published to help readers evaluate the article. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject the manuscript based on any declared conflict of interest.

Authors may declare conflicts of interest through a cover letter or via the manuscript submission form in the Open Journal System (OJS).

Conflicts of interest may be financial or non-financial. To maintain transparency, any affiliations or relationships that could be perceived by others as a conflict of interest must also be disclosed.

Examples of Financial Conflicts of Interest:
- Employment or voluntary involvement
- Collaborations with advocacy groups related to the content of the article
- Grants from an entity, paid to the author or their institution
- Personal fees received by the author as honoraria, royalties, consulting fees, lecture fees, or testimonies
- Patents held or pending by the author, their institution, sponsors, or licensed to another entity
- Royalties received by the author or their institution
- Stock or share ownership
- Other benefits related to product development resulting from the work

Examples of Non-Financial Conflicts of Interest:
- Receipt of drugs, specialized equipment, tools, software, or digital applications
- Access to data repositories, archival resources, or collections from parties that may be affected by the publication
- Holding positions on boards of industry bodies or private companies that may be affected by the article’s content
- Writing assistance or administrative support from individuals or organizations with a vested interest
- Personal, political, religious, ideological, academic, or intellectual interests relevant to the content
- Involvement in legal proceedings related to the work

If there are no conflicts of interest to declare, authors must include a statement in the article confirming that there are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to disclose.